By Harsh Thakor
NATURE OF INDIAN
STATE
I do feel personally the conference failed to highlight the
repressive role of the Congress and it's role in endorsing or blessing Hindu
fascism. The aspect of the anti -people pro-corporate economic agenda of the
Congress was not touched upon. Nor did it sufficiently reflect on the aspect of
revolutionary class struggle and movements to conquer fascism. It was the very
Congress that founded liberalization and globalization from 1991, opened the
doors to the Babri Masjid and its demolition earlier and was responsible for
the Sikh massacre of 1984 .There is a strong tendency within the revolutionary
camp to singlehandedly target the major enemy the BJP but not the
socio-political order or the state as a whole and thus make alliances with
opposition. or revisionist parties .A clear cut revolutionary coherent class
stand is lacking addressing the workers ,peasants and other sections. This has
been revealed in the position of the C.P.I.(M.L.)P.C and Red Star groups and
also in forums oriented towards the C.P.I.(Maoist) like the coalition formed in
Uttar Pradesh a year ago against fascism. Tendency of strong vacillation
towards Ambedkarism or minority communalism.
We must all remember that the independence we gained in 1947
was merely a transfer of power to the Comprador bourgeoisie and that very Congress
crushed the revolt of the peasantry in Telengana and remove a democratically
installed Communist party in Kerala. Workers were also brutally attacked in West Bengal in that time. To attack fascism at its roots
we have to hit at the base of the very social order nurturing the phenomenon.
No doubt we have several features of conventional fascism
like banning of a genuine revolutionary Communist party, incarceration and
framing of democratic activists, murder of activists in cold blood in the name
of encounter, suppressing of revolutionary mass organizations and movements, isolating
minorities completely, suppressing all rights of dalit community, introducing
laws which violate essence of bourgeois democracy like UAPA. etc.
Since regime of Congress itself in pre-emergency and
post-emergency we have witnessed the worst massacres. Prominent examples are
Arwal and Laxmanpur Bathe in Bihar of dalit labourers by police and upper caste
senas , of tribals in Indravelli and Karimnagar of Andhra Pradesh, of railway
workers in Mumbai, Mine workers in Bhillai and Chattisgarh and cement workers
in dhalla , of Sikhs in Delhi and of Muslim s in Bhiwandi and Meerut climaxing
in the Babri Masjid demolition, cold-blooded assassination of civil liberties
activists in Andhra Pradesh and of Mine workers leader Shankar Guha Nyugi
,persecution of the Kashmiri masses demanding self-determination, supression of
Dalit panther movement etc. All the grounds for the Hindu fascist offensive of
BJP of recent times was laid by the Congress.
The BJP after seizing the reigns of power has tried to bang
every nail in the coffin to formally establish a Hindu state and has subjugated
minorities and dalits to a scale of suppression unprecedented as well as on
democratic intellectuals. It has introduced laws which have suppressed dissent
as never before. and made the Judicial subservient to the state as never before
.Through laws like UAPA it has framed false charges on professor Saibaba, Leaders
of Maruti workesr union and intellectuals like 'urban Maoists' in recent times.
Life sentence to Saibaba and Maruti Union leaders has surpassed even past
opressive judgements of the Congress. University campuses have been attacked at
a scale never before by the police supporting the saffron brigade.It has
impeached the constitution morally at a level never done before in attacking
the minorities and oppressed sections.
However still opposition parties and civil liberties
organizations can function, limited level of protest is allowed, revolutionary
democratic journals permitted, intellectuals able to raise their voice against
the system to a certain extent. which would bot prevail in a fascist state. If
completely fascist the anti-fascist convention would not have been allowed nor
the protest of democratic activists against arrest of intellectuals permitted
at Jantar Mantar in Delhi
in August last year. Only because of features of bourgeois democracy prevalent
could books be published like Bernard De Mello's 'Unfinished history-50 years
after Naxalbari" or Amit Bhattacharya's 'Storming the Gates of Heaven' on
Maoist movement in India or even revolutionary blogs like Sanhati, democracy
and class struggle or Peoples Review .
Till last year one could even access banned thought blog
started in 2009 with suppressed documents of revolutionary organizations
.However last year the BJP govt blocked it which was a significant turn towards
fascism. Morally certain areas of India could be termed as
functioning as fascist areas like Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa or earlier Lalgarh
where all dissent was virtually prohibited. The continued arrest of Professor
G.N. Saibaba without any proper trial was the most defining movement of the
Indian state turning its tide towards fascism.
NATURE OF INDIAN FASCISM
A more thorough study has to be undertaken to analyze the
true character of Indian fascism as distinct to that practiced by Hitler and
Mussolini earlier or even China
under Chiang Kai Shek. It is very hard to visualize the fabric of parliamentary
or constitutional democracy being totally destroyed in India as in Germany or
Italy in the 1930's.Still there are possibilities of India emulating the road
of Chile under Pinochet and Philippines under Marcos in 1973.In 1975 the
constitution was suspended and political opposition banned but even then India
was semi-fascist and not completely fascist. The parliamentary system India inherited
from the colonial legacy or the bourgeoisie is too strong to completely
incorporate fascism. India
is also a nation of great diversity with so many communities and religions and
it is very hard to destroy the federal structure so quickly. Unlike Chile and Philippines
earlier India
does not directly face neo-colonialism or subjugation to a single superpower.
Rather than terming it fascist it is more accurate to call
it 'fascination 'of the Indian state. In my view India lies in between a
bourgeois democracy and a fascist state .Many intellectuals like Vijay Singh of
Revolutionary Democracy or Ashim Roy of NTUI feel that India could well go on
the road of Chile under Allende. Others like former All India Peoples
Resistance forum secretary Arjun Prasad Singh or Punjabi journal Surkh Leeh
editor Pavel Kussa feel that the Indian parliament is too strong to permeate
complete fascism and thus improbable that India would become completely
fascist. Both feel the BJP would have to use the very legal organs of
parliamentary democracy to survive and consolidate. In my view I find it very
hard to conceive the Indian state going completely fascist even under the BJP
rule.
I recommend readers to read an article written by Arjun
Prasad Singh on fascism which differentiates the shape fascism will take place
in India from orthodox fascist states .One of the best examples in India of
combating fascist trends was that of the Democratic Front against Operation
Greenhunt of Punjab which attacked fascism at its very base with a series of
seminars and rallies of democratic revolutionary intellectuals and section and
section sof broad masses. The views of the C.P.I.(Maoist) party on India becoming
a fascist state after Babri Masjid in 1992 are rather ambiguous but possibly it
is only used as a terminology. Nicholas Glais of Democracy and Class Struggle
blog and Scott Harrison of Massline have views more coherent with the Maoist
party, justifying India
being termed fascist today. They both feel India are on the verge of turning
from a semi-fascist state into a completely fascist one. Harrison feels India is
bourgeois democratic mainly in the cities but fascist in regions where the
Maoist party works. Intellectuals like Arundhati Roy no doubt are very
progressive and enlightening but simply lack a revolutionary class perspective
and hardly throw light on the semi-feudal and semi-colonial aspects and portray
revolutionary democracy from an Ambedkarist or caste viewpoint. Arguably the
most accurate assessment is done by the Communist Party Re Organization Centre
of India (M.l) which summarizes that only revolution can defeat the advance of
fascist reaction .
Arguably today the undeclared emergency prevailing is a
greater danger than the emergency of 1975.The most significant factor combating
complete fascism are the civil liberties organizations with regards to peoples
movements and cadre of the left parties with regards to Hindutva ideology. Unlike
the emergency of 1975 the opposition parties are not banned or the social media
while in 1975 the Congress had no concrete ideology. The BJP are establishing
their social base in a much more organized fashion with a definite ideology. Quoting
journal Peoples Review "An undeclared emergency is more dangerous than a
declared one because under it though the people lose all rights, they aren’t
informed about it. Unlike emergency, in which the media is censored by the
rulers, during an undeclared emergency, the media follows self-censorship,
desisting from criticizing the government and works as the mouthpiece of the
regime. The corporate houses, whose interest the government serves, own the
major media outlets and through them, they try to broadcast the propaganda of
their own government. Their media, toady in character and servile in nature,
try to portray a positive and “all-is-well” image of a really gloomy and
disastrous situation."
There are two possibilities before India today,
either fascism will totally destroy the autonomy of the legislative, judiciary
and the executive, or fascism can be smashed altogether through joint
resistance. The people have already lost their faith in the legislative, which
is why the Election Commission and big business houses have to spend millions
on advertisements to lure people to the polling booths. Those who cast their
votes even don’t believe that the polls will change any aspect of their lives
at all. Now this clash within the ‘sacred’ institutions of the judiciary and
executive blackened the image of these two in front of the people. It may be a
bad thing, however, it also has a good side as real democracy can be achieved
only by outcasting the sham one. The more the people will see the mask falling
off the grotesque face of the fascist Indian state the more they will fight for
true democracy, a people’s democracy.(Peoples Review article)
One of the best examples in India of combating fascist trends
was that of the Democratic Front against Operation Greenhunt of Punjab which
attacked fascism at its very base with a series of seminars and rallies of
democratic revolutionary intellectuals and section and section of broad masses.
Infact it is in the state of Punjab today where the best organized movement has
been built against state repression by encompassing all sections be it the
peasantry, workers govt. employees, students
or women. This was demonstrated in a rally of almost 10000 persons in city of Chandigrah last September
organized by a joint front of various democratic mass organizations. Forces
from all trends of the Communist revolutionary camp participated and created a
big impact.
The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship
itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical,
social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the
international position of the given country. In certain countries, principally
those in which fascism has no broad mass basis and in which the struggle of the
various groups within the camp of the fascist bourgeoisie itself is rather
acute, fascism does not immediately venture to abolish parliament, but allows
the other bourgeois parties, as well as the Social-Democratic Parties, to
retain a modicum of legality. In other countries, where the ruling bourgeoisie
fears an early outbreak of revolution, fascism establishes its unrestricted
political monopoly, either immediately or by intensifying its reign of terror
against and persecution of all rival parties and groups. This does not prevent
fascism, when its position becomes particularly acute, from trying to extend
its basis and, without altering its class nature, trying to combine open
terrorist dictatorship with a crude sham of parliamentarism. In certain
countries, principally those in which fascism has no broad mass basis and in
which the struggle of the various groups within the camp of the fascist
bourgeoisie itself is rather acute, fascism does not immediately venture to
abolish parliament, but allows the other bourgeois parties, as well as the Social-Democratic
Parties, to retain a modicum of legality. to go completely fascist would mean
to annul every democratic institution along with elections. it is not possible.
the working class will desert Modi which is Modi's main support as far as
elections are concerned. & other bourgeois parties along with the media
will go against Modi. I think we should examine Fascism in stages - we have
Proto Fascism the precursor of fascism some see it as right wing Populism - it
is the route to power - when Fascism is in power it operated quite differently
and the opposite of the rhetoric that brought it to power- this is the initial
state of Fascism - from this consolidation it moves to full Fascism which will
be external War and elimination of dissent at home - all three stages or phases
have to be looked at with their own national characteristics. In early phases
communist party is banned but other bourgeois parties allowed Communists pose
existential threat to Fascism and can't be tolerated We have problem today of social
fascism - revisionists like CPIM and CPC in China. Fascism of German type will
not arrive and the economy of fascism of 1930s was different. Fascism is not
dictated only through banning of parliamentary opposition. That’s why we are
not saying it is fascist but fascist tendencies. Certain similar
features.(Views of Comrade Manu Kant of Stalin Society )
In the era of Imperialism, Fascism emerges mainly out of the
Crisis of Finance Capital. It destroys the Parliamentary form of Democracy and
turns it into a Terrorist Dictatorship. To fight against this Dictatorship, a
broad based people's front under the leadership of working class is the need of
hour. So, we must not satisfy ourselves by forming anti-repression or
anti-communal type front. Bourgeois Democracy is in itself a bourgeois
dictatorship. So, the Parliamentary form of govt. will remain, but it's nature
will change qualitatively. In my opinion it will take time to materialize. Modi Rule
is heading towards Fascism, but still Indian state has not been turned into a
fascist state. Fascism emerges mainly out of the Crisis of Finance Capital.
Fascist power may use caste, race or religious sentiments of the people to
suppress all types of their resistance. It is true that Indian revolutionaries
are giving more stress on communalism, rather than economic base of
Fascism."(Views of Comrade Arjun Prasad Singh of PDFI).
The End.
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